Satisfying

Last week, in one of her blog posts, Holley Gerth mentioned a book by Gary Thomas called “Pure Pleasure“. I like Gary’s writing, and this book sounded good, so I asked my local library to inter-library loan a copy for me — which they did. And already, it is good! Here’s a quote that I loved:

“We can build lives of true, lasting pleasure, and so fortify ourselves against evil because evil has lost much of its allure — or we can try, with an iron will, to ‘scare’ ourselves away from evil while still, deep in our hearts, truly longing for it. Which life do you want to live?” (p.15)

The book also said:

“In a progressive journey of faith, God gradually re-centers our desires toward holy pleasures, spiritually good and healthy things that leave us satisfied and full, so that sin begins to lose much (but never all) of its appeal.” (p.24)

Basically, it’s saying that we need to be so saturated with God in our lives that we want what He wants for us, and then the joy of living for Him so far outweighs the pull of sin that we aren’t even going to be interested in straying from our faith! It’s like having two platters to choose from: the deep, soul-satisfying life God has for us, or the worldly pleasures… which will we choose?

The world’s problem (and even some Christians’ problem) is that they think the Christian life couldn’t possibly be satisfying enough — it looks boring, dull, and so lacking in fun! But in reality, God’s way is the only way that trulyfulfills at the soul level and never leaves you wanting. It is completely satisfying!

If only people could get just a taste of this! Those worldly pleasures would totally lose their appeal.